Chapter 4
Christmas was a more or less fun time for Gwen and her family. Her brother went crazy over the video game she got him; he hugged her, said thanks, and ran up to his room to start playing it. She and her mother shared a laugh over that as they continued to unwrap the presents. Gwen smiled as she got a skull alarm clock from Duncan who no doubt did it without telling Courtney, a new horror book from LeShawna, a whole outfit from Cody that somehow matched her usual style(she rolled her eyes at that one), a porcelain rabbit from DJ (she couldn't deny it looked cute), a dark blue scarf from Trent (everybody seemed to know her colour scheme these days).
She got several more gifts from some relatives, and to top it off a new I-Pod from her mom that was-you guessed it, midnight blue to match everything else. After they were done opening presents her mom brought out the egg nog-which Gwen avoided like the plague after the first time she tried it. Her mom and brother were crazy for it, but for her...well some people like it, some don't. Gwen just didn't.
"You fight demons, monsters, and explore an arcane world that would leave most blabbering ninnies, but you can't handle some egg nog?" Andromeda teased her.
"Do you want me to dip this thing in Mr Clean again?"
"I thought we agreed never to talk about that again," Andromeda pouted-or at least Gwen assumed she did, with the connection came an empathetic link that just allowed her to know how Andromeda was reacting.
"Then we never speak of the egg nog again, deal?"
"Deal."
"So god forbid I don't have any cases today?" Gwen sat at her desk.
"Do you mean any cases you won't take up without a moment's hesitation?" Andromeda replied. "Sadly I feel that chat room may indeed have several assignments on it. Spirits don't have holidays...not all of us anyways."
"Is there such thing as a Christmas spirit?" Gwen turned her lap top on.
"Who do you think inspired the Ghost of Christmas Past?"
That threw Gwen for a loop. "Seriously?"
"No I'm just joking...I inspired the Ghost of Christmas Future, the creepy hooded one in all those movies."
"You seriously worry me sometimes Andromeda," Gwen muttered.
"Take a break, Gwen; you've certainly earned one after these last few weeks." Andromeda spoke up, changing the subject. "You are not the only spirit Avatar in the world, you can afford to rest once in a while. Enjoy your time off while there's still some time before school opens again."
"You know me by now; I can't help but want to see more out in the world and not just the human world." Gwen leaned back on her chair. "Who do you think could have tricked Damien into trying to destroy the whole city?"
"Obviously someone with ambition and no regards for the citizens so as long as a large amount of life energy is provided and possesses a cunning mind to know who you are and who you are the avatar of. It is most likely why this place was chosen, they knew that you were here." Andromeda surmised.
"Meaning if I wasn't a target before I am one now." Gwen looked up at the ceiling.
"This is why I suggest you take the time and rest. The battles shall not become any easier no matter how many powerful foes you defeat."
"All right, I get it. I'll take the day off, because it's Christmas." Gwen smiled. "I'd never hear the end of it from you if I said no."
"You are correct." Andromeda replied smugly.
Xxx
Five Days Later
A man was walking down the street, eager to get home to his family. He stopped at the street light as it held up a stop sign and waited for it to change back so he could walk across the street. Just as he stopped he heard footsteps behind him and spun around to see...
A ten year old little girl with blond hair and green eyes, wearing a pink coat, white pants, a blue scarf, and a hat on her head.
"Oh, sorry about that. I didn't see you." The man said, thinking he was about to robbed or mugged.
The girl did not answer; instead she just seemed to be staring off into space. The man was puzzled but when he saw the light turn to a walk sign he shrugged and began walking. But as he walked one of the cars that stopped when the red light came on suddenly a car came out of nowhere before he could move out of the way and was hit. Everyone looked on in shock as the man was sent into the middle of the street.
The girl then walked across the street as if nothing happened.
Xxx
It seemed the world was fine even though Gwen was taking some time off, no powerful demons or spirits caused trouble after the fight at the concert which was something she was grateful for. It allowed her to get some work done, spend time with her family for the holidays and even start working on her blog.
"Hey. Today I want to talk about going green. Basically, the world is going to die if we don't do something about it!" Gwen started the show.
"Katie! Remember when we went green?" Sadie spoke up as she and Katie appeared behind Gwen.
"Guys..." Gwen spoke, not wanting them to divert away from the subject.
"Oh, my gosh, Sadie! When you helped paint my bedroom green, and we got into that paint fight, it was so fun!" Katie squealed.
"I know! And just because we got into one little paint fight, doesn't mean we're not BFF's!"
Gwen had to resist the urge to tell them to shut up but she could feel Andromeda reaching out to calm her down and keeping her from losing her temper. So instead she ended her blog before it got any worse.
"Guys," She spun around and faced them.
"We're sorry, Gwen." Katie replied.
"But your show kind of sucks." Sadie pointed out.
"Why did LeShawna have to bail on me?" Gwen sighed. "Forget it, the show's done."
She stood up, and headed for the door. "My mom's got some cookies out downstairs, you want some?"
"Oh cookies!" Katie and Sadie squealed as they ran out the door the second Gwen opened it.
"I guess it was a little much to ask them to help me on this blog show." Gwen shook her head.
"They meant no harm but even your celebrity status won't help in making people listen." Andromeda whispered.
"I guess so." Gwen sighed again.
That was when her cell phone rang. She picked it up and pressed the talk button. "Hello?"
"Oh, Gwenny! We've got a present for you!" Kurt called out in a singing turn.
Gwen held the phone away from her ear to keep herself from going deaf. "What do you want?"
"You might want to turn on your TV and head for the nearest news channel." Kurt replied.
Gwen went to the living room and grabbed the remote, turning the TV on and setting it for CTV.
"...in a hit and run incident earlier this morning, former RCMP Detective James Kutcher," The News Anchor said. "Mr Kutcher was killed on the corner of Dundas and College Street, struck by a black vehicle with no confirmed model or year as of yet, and no confirmed driver. Some speculate the driver may have been intoxicated and passed out while other claims that they saw no driver entirely. Police officials have offered no comment as of yet to see whether this was an accident or a deliberate killing. We'll be back with more information tonight."
As it moved on to another report, Gwen shut the TV off. "The ex-cop hit and run?"
"That's the one," Kurt said. "The Digital Map of Toronto got a hit around the time of that accident right on the corner of Dundas Street West and College Street. I think our ex-detective was hit with something that caused that car to hit him."
"Or maybe the car was possessed? Whatever it was couldn't have taken life energy from him if it had him run down," Gwen replied.
"Either way Gwen, this is our jurisdiction and Merlin is insisting we check it out," Kurt said.
"You mean I go take a look around while you serve your 'customers' at your shop," Gwen deadpanned.
"Thanks for being so understanding Gwen!" Kurt replied cheerily. "Bye now!" He hung up.
"...jerk,"
Xxx
A quick change of clothes later and Gwen was on the scene with her ever useful Pepper Spray to make her invisible to eyes and cameras. She examined the chalk outline of where Kutcher's body had landed after it was hit by the car. The limbs would have been at unnatural angles based on the outline, so Gwen didn't try to picture it. Instead she knelt and placed one hand within the outline.
"Show me the end."
She watched a replay of everything that happened leading up to James Kutcher's death. She kept going back to the part with the little girl who Kutcher had encountered before being run over.
Standing up, she pulled out her cell phone. "Hey Kurt, I may have a lead."
"Bring it."
"I'm sending you a Psi Image," Gwen replied.
A Psi Image was another Method that Avatars found useful, allowing them to relay mental images through the use of their phones to one another. It was like taking control of an image in a phone's camera and then reshaping it to become what they wanted. Gwen took a quick picture of the outline and then shut her eyes.
"Your form is mine to decide."
The image of the outline changed and twisted, taking perhaps five minutes until she got it precisely how she remembered the girl in the image. She sent it to Kurt. "Did you get it?"
"Yeah, I'll check around for possibility of demonic possession, do a Spirit Scent check," Kurt instructed. "If she was there then the scent will still be fresh, it's only been a few hours."
"Gotcha, I'll call when I know more." Gwen hung up on him and turned on her phone's enhanced camera to follow the spirit scent-
"Hey you, this is a restricted area!"
"Oh snap!" Gwen pulled out her pepper spray as three officers rushed over to her. When they saw the pepper spray they prepared to manhandle her off of the premises...until she vanished both from their vision and from their minds forever.
"...why are we over here?"
"You know that's a good question, why are we here at all-"
"Oh don't you two start, I don't need another philosophical discussion from the lot of you; now get back to work."
Xxx
Gwen spent nearly an hour tracking a potent spirit scent across Toronto. But as she reached the edge of Don River Park she was called by Kurt. "Kinda busy here Kurt."
"Where are you?"
"Don River Park."
"Head for the river," He said. "Trust me."
Gwen obeyed and soon saw a crowd along with several police cruisers by the river that cut through the park. She saw something being dragged out of the water...
The black car that had hit ex-Detective James Kutcher.
"Damn..." She aimed her phone at the car and examined the powerful spirit scent coming off of it. "This guy's good," Like any scent, a spirit scent could be harder to track through water. Luckily she found a strand of red that led her across the river and out the east end of the park. "How far is that girl going to go before she stops?"
The search resumed along the areas lining the shores of Lake Ontario. As she went further along she passed through Greek Town and Leslieville she eventually came upon North Shore Park where the scent ended at the lake waters.
"Damn..." Her phone rang. "Kurt, tell me you have something because I hit a dead end on that spirit."
"I think that spirit is a smart one," Kurt informed her. "I found more on your girl; she's Samantha Johnson, goes to a school near where the former Detective was killed. It's still the holidays so she shouldn't have been out there, alone in the streets."
"Well she was there and I think she had something to do with it. I just tracked the scent all way to Lake Ontario and lost. Someone knows how to cover their tracks."
"I'll keep an eye out for anymore outbursts and call you when it happens." Kurt hung up without saying goodbye.
Gwen sighed and quickly formed a portal to head back home.
Xxx
The next day no new leads had come up about what happened to the former detective or the spirit that had a hand in his death. Gwen was stuck waiting for the phone call from Kurt as she attempted to go about her daily life.
"Hey, Gwen!" She was shaken out of her thoughts as Alex knocked on the door.
He obviously remembered that he was to always knock and wait for her to say it was okay to open the door unless he wanted to suffer a very painful death.
"It's open." She called out.
He opened and door and leaned his head into the room. "You got to see this."
She got up, thinking it was another murder as she followed Alex into the living room. It wasn't about what happened yesterday but instead something else she was not happy to see.
"Heather?" She asked.
It was indeed Heather on the TV, wearing a wig that matched Gwen's hair style and held up two puppets of Katie and Sadie.
"This is the loser Gwen show, where everything always sucks and the world is terrible."Heather said sounding like Gwen and then started sounding like Katie. "Like oh my gosh! No singing? That is so sad, don't you think Sadie?" She then switched to Sadie. "I know! It's totally like oh my gosh! Isn't it like awesome how the same we are?"She switched back to Katie. "I know! Now look at my butt!" She switched back to Gwen. "Guys! How dare you interrupt my loser video blog!" She held up a picture of Duncan. "I wish Duncan was here so I could kiss him, even though I'm too scared to tell him how much I love him, because I'm too cool!" She kissed the picture. "P.S. Save the whales."
The show ended as the news reporter came up.
"This was put on the Internet this morning as former Total Drama contestant Heather has started a blog show that makes fun of fellow contestant Gwen who briefly had her own blog show about the environment but was seemingly cancelled."
The anchor's partner let out a chuckle. "It looks like we might have another celebrity war similar to just about every celebrity on celebrity fight in Hollywood."
"Oh god..." Gwen groaned.
"That chick is crazy." Alex chuckled. "So what are you going to do about it?"
"Honestly, I've got a few things to do before I even think of dealing with that rat." Gwen shook it off.
Dealing with Heather was the last thing on her mind right now. She had a job to do right now and dealing with annoying rich girls who probably got rejected by about every boy in her school was not important right now. She quickly threw on her coat and headed for Kurt's shop.
Xxx
"Oh man! That was a riot!" Kurt laughed. "Watching her with the wig and the puppets as she went on and on!"
Kurt didn't seem bothered by the fact Gwen was giving him what many men would call a glare of impending doom. Gwen was very tempted to take out her sword and cut Kurt to pieces as Kurt brought up his laptop.
"You wouldn't believe the number of hits she's got."
"Kurt!" Gwen barked which made Kurt quickly close the page with Heather's web show, getting the idea he might have gone a step too far. "Right, mysterious murder, on it!"
"What do we know about it?"
"Well, not much actually. The man was killed obviously by a vehicle that was possessed out in the open. Usually spirits don't go for that kind of kill, they like to keep to the shadows since if they're attack is seen it's much easier for an avatar to find and stop them." Kurt quickly looked at the map. "This means we're dealing with something that's not been around for very long or interested in life energy. Perhaps the ghost of a serial killer or spirit of vengeance."
"Like the Onyro?" Gwen asked.
"Nothing close to that. The Onyro was powerful enough to take physical form when it attacked its victims, especially since Sarah was much stronger than a usual one. This one chose to rely on possessing a car meaning it's not nearly as powerful as an Onyro. It might be using the girl as a host to track down its targets."
"But if it was that simple I would have found her and released her from its grip." Gwen pointed out.
"So obviously this one has a neat trick. Using the water to get rid of the spirit scent. Maybe it even has a spell of its own to hide its presence until it finds another target." Kurt looked at the map. "Aside from yesterday's attack there's been nothing new."
"If it is a vengeance type we are dealing with than the man that was killed must have had a connection to its former life. Perhaps even had a hand in its death." Andromeda manifested in her spectre form as floated above Gwen's right shoulder. "We need to know this man's history to understand its motive."
Xxx
Sergeant Henry Malloy had finished his paper work and quickly packed his things so he could head home. Walking down onto the platform of the subway he waited for the train, checking his watch to make sure he had made it on time. The sound of the train coming proved he was on time. As he waited a girl stood a few feet away, watching him.
As the sounds of the train came closer to the platform Henry's bag suddenly fell out of his hand and some documents slipped out.
"Oh, no." He groaned as he got down to pick them as fast as possible.
That was when a paper flew into his face making him fall back off the platform and onto the track just as the train was seen coming out of the tunnel.
"Get back up here!" A man yelled to Henry as he got up.
Henry saw the train heading for him and he scrambled to run and get back onto the platform. However he tripped on something that felt like a foot making him fall on the center of the track. Everyone screamed as the train ran over him.
Xxx
"You have got to be kidding me," Kurt mumbled as he worked at two separate lap tops at once. One was showing a live news coverage of the death of Sergeant Henry Malloy while the other was hooked up to the Digital Map that tracked spirit activity. "Ok...same train station, same time." When his printer was done spitting out the report he almost tore the papers out before they were actually out and rushed over to his phone. He tapped a button on it that had Gwen's name written on a piece of tape above it.
That was how his phone worked with avatars: custom made so each button could speed dial his most reoccurring customer.
"Gwen we have another death coinciding with spirit related activity," Kurt said. "It's in a train station, I'm sending you the address now. Hurry and get there while there's a fresh scent. It's fifteen minutes old and there's a park a few dozen miles from there."
Xxx
Gwen had managed to form a Hexagon Gate to the station-after Kurt told her that he had a set of sprites establish the second hexagon there. She slipped through the crowd, managing to spray herself under her coat and then pull out her phone-if she had done so without the spray some might think she was taking a picture for some sick amusement.
"Got you," She whispered as she caught a fresh scent, barely thirty minutes old. She rushed out of the station-even knocking some people aside in her rush.
The scent crossed streets and once passed through a mall. All in all Gwen had to run almost thirty miles within the span of over two hours, keeping up with a scent that remained only minutes fresh. Slowly she noticed that the red colour in her phone's camera grew brighter, meaning she was getting closer to the mobile source. By now she was getting winded-not unusual for an Avatar at this point, even they have their limits.
"Alright...there's a park up ahead!" She sped up, jumping over a bench and managing to avoid pushing a man into oncoming traffic.
Finally she was pounding across dirt and grass, following the trail closer and closer to where a small lake was located near the middle of the park. It led right into the water and vanished. But after heading around the lake she saw a thin trail like the one from the river where the car had been dumped.
"There's no trail leading away," Gwen stared at the dark water that had ice forming in some places. "Oh man..." She took off her trench coat.
"I can keep you warm beneath the water," Andromeda said. "But once you're back up you should have a way to get somewhere warm, fast."
"I have an idea," Gwen dialled Kurt's number. "Kurt, set up a Hexagon Portal in your shop, and place a lot of towels around it...and put your heater on high." She slipped the phone into her coat pocket and then knelt. She took her katana and carved a hexagon deep into the ground and cleared snow away from it, leaving a patch of frozen ground. She crushed a piece of chalk she used for making hexagons into dust and let it fall into the hexagon outline. Soon she had a thin outline of a hexagon that she draped her coat over so the wind would not blow the chalk dust out and ruin it.
"Ok, ready!" Gwen sucked in a breath and waded out into the water. As she did, Andromeda's spectral form began to manifest around her, widening until instead of small tendrils it became a cocoon of some sorts that pulsed with energy as Gwen began to swim out into deeper water. She had inhaled and exhaled twice during that time. On the third inhale she dove under began to swim down.
She had to rely on a few methods from Andromeda that allowed her to see in the murky water and to move faster in order to make this fast. Andromeda also allowed her to detect some of the Spirit Scent-a rather impractical spell that was not as effective as a phone's camera. She managed to follow a small strand of red down to the lake floor and into the dirt and mud.
She began to clear it away until her hand brushed something that felt like a twig. She grabbed it to pull it out of the way...and screamed, letting out a stream of bubbles when instead she pulled the husk of a human body out of the mud. It had the tattered remnants of clothing on it, and its eye sockets were hollow, the flesh sunken and dead.
The trail led right to it.
Xxx
Needless to say her panic made it easier for her to get out of the lake in time and reach the Hexagon. She quickly drew light to each corner and then allowed herself to be sucked through and wind up in the middle of Kurt's shop. She curled up on the floor, shivering as Kurt grabbed several towels and draped them over her.
"Are you ok?" He asked genuine concern in his voice. "You look like you saw a corpse."
"H-h-how did you know?" Gwen asked.
"...wait, you really did...crap, that joke was really inappropriate then." Kurt mumbled. "So you really saw a corpse?"
"At the bottom of a lake, the trail ended at it," Gwen managed to say. "I think it wanted me to find it."
"If it knows you're following it..." Kurt shook his head. "Let's get you into some warm, dry clothes first, then I can explain my new theory."
He gave Gwen a set of track pants and a sweater to wear while her clothes dried out. She sat on the couch, with a blanket around her and a cup of hot chocolate in her hands. Kurt sat next to her. "Consider the clothes on the house for what you went through."
"Thanks," Gwen nodded, taking a sip of the hot chocolate. "So what do you think it is?"
"Well I think we are really dealing with a spirit of vengeance...but not something as bad or dark as an Onyro," Kurt said. "More like...instead of being motivated by a negative emotion such as hatred and rage, it's more of a positive emotion. Like...justice."
"Justice isn't an emotion," Gwen said.
"You know what I mean," Kurt replied. "Now, do you have any idea who this guy was?"
"Here's one hint," Gwen placed a police badge on the table. It was an RCMP badge.
"Ow...a cop." Kurt nodded.
"There's more...he had chains on his ankles and his hands were tied," Gwen said. "The chains were attached to a large weight. I think he was drowned."
"...now this makes sense," Kurt said. "This cop gets killed...his spirit doesn't rest, instead it stays and targets other cops...but why?"
"And why the girl?"
"She must have something of his that connects him to her, like how your necklace connects you and Andromeda," Kurt said. "But she's not an avatar, she's a medium, or a host of sorts. A positive spirit usually implies that the spirit intends to leave eventually, after its business is done. In this case it's killing off cops..."
"Maybe the cops killed him?" Gwen suggested.
"Do you have a picture of him?" Kurt asked.
"I have a Psi Image I can give you."
He gave her a phone, and she formed an image of the coffee table into the corpse.
"Ooh...the years have not been kind," Kurt winced. "But now I know why her doll looked like that."
"Doll?" Gwen raised an eyebrow.
"I get out when I need to. I checked her house and saw most of her dolls were beaten pretty badly and they were tied up with their legs bound to some stuff like she was planning on drowning them."
"A sign of how this one police man had died." Andromeda spoke up. "She must have seen glimpses of his death and her dolls are a way of reminding her."
"Ok...I just need a Temporal Image."
"Temporal Image?"
"It's like a rewind button on an image," Kurt replied. "Only instead I'll know what this guy looked like before he died."
"...awesome," Gwen nodded.
"Alright," Kurt hooked the phone up to one lap top and spent several minutes there. "And...got it," He nodded and turned the lap top to show her the face of a middle aged man with messy, thinning brown hair and gaunt features. "I'll run his face through the records for a comparison. Meanwhile you, little missy will go home, stay warm and get some rest."
"Will do mom," Gwen smirked.
"Don't make me put you in the corner," Kurt replied without looking at her. "I made a hexagon to your room, it's right behind the couch. You can pick up your wet clothes later."
"Thanks." Gwen replied as she stepped on the hexagon and the portal took her back to her house.
Xxx
After Gwen got back she had quickly made some hot chocolate to keep herself warm and hopefully stop herself from catching a cold. Sitting down at her desk she opened her laptop and decided to catch up on the latest gossip, seeing what the others were doing.
"Today, on Total Drama Gossip News former contestants Lindsay and Beth were arrested in Paris earlier today following an incident with the Mona Lisa."
"Oh boy." Gwen had to cover her mouth from smiling in amusement as they showed the footage.
"Apparently both had decided to take a vacation in Paris for the holidays along with their families. They went off on their own and visited the Musee du Louvre where the Mona Lisa is on permanent display. The incident was recorded by multiple tourists and uploaded to Youtube a half hour later."
The reporter than brought up a recording of what had happened in the museum.
Beth had been too close to the Mona Lisa and she tripped causing it to shake. A guard noticed this and tried to tell them stop while speaking French which Gwen highly doubted Beth and Lindsay understood a word of what he was saying. Lindsay's attempts to fix the picture confirmed Gwen's guess as she licked her finger and rubbed it on the photo, smearing the painting. The alarms went off and both were arrested.
"Both celebrities were taken away and have been in a minimum security prison since then, neither they nor their families are able to post bail." The reporter continued as Beth and Lindsay's mug shots were shown.
The next footage was of Beth and Lindsay in jail.
"Did anyone see my other earring? It's a gold hoop with a little horse charm?" Lindsay asked, sitting in her cell with Beth.
"Lindsay, they don't speak English." Beth pointed out.
"Oh." Lindsay said sounding like she understood but then proved everyone wrong a second later. "I LOST MY EARRING! IT'S A LITTLE HOOP WITH A HORSE!" She then neighed like a horse. "HORSE?"
"Both families have refused comment on this and it is currently unknown if they plan to bail them out or let them serve the sentence." The reporter said.
Gwen let out a groan, pinching the bridge of her nose and shaking her head. "...celebrities."
"You're one too, remember?" Andromeda pointed out.
"There's a difference," Gwen replied. "I'm just a star, a celebrity...99 percent of them end up in a controversy. A star...they're small time and temporary, just how I like it."
"So you won't help them?"
"...would you?"
"...probably not." Andromeda replied. "Besides, I don't think you have the money to bail them out. They damaged the Mona Lisa, and I was a fan of Da Vinci in his time and I rather approved of that painting."
"And despite being the powerful spirit who is the equivalent of a Queen I suppose you're shorthanded too?" Gwen challenged. "I bet you know of five or six different places where I could find easy treasure lying around."
"...maybe, but it's rather impossible to survive being several miles under the ocean, even for you," Andromeda replied. "So unless you feel like becoming a Morpher and turning into a shark or a giant squid you're out of luck."
"How big a sentence is it to damage the Mona Lisa?"
"I haven't studied the law in France, and I usually don't waste time researching art related vandalism but...maybe a few years," Andromeda answered.
"Yikes." Gwen felt a bit of pity for Beth and Lindsay.
Her thoughts were interrupted when her cell phone rang. She picked it up and answered. "Hello?"
"Yo, Gwenny! Got some news for you!" Kurt called out making Gwen hold her phone away from her ear. "Turns out our mystery corpse is indeed a missing cop. Ronald Lynch, he along with our two dead cops have almost no history together except during an investigation of a drug smuggling operations around twelve years ago. The operation was a success and the smugglers were arrested but Lynch vanished and was assumed dead since the smugglers put up a fight, they think he was shot and fell into Lake Ontario as the bust was made at the docks but no one saw what happened."
"So those two dragged him to that lake and drowned him." Gwen surmised. "Why?"
"You mean those three. There was another one involved in the investigation. Something else came up in my search; they found small bills in the smugglers warehouse in some rooms that looked like they had looted. It looked like the smugglers were laundering money but the money was never found." Kurt continued. "The police assumed that some smugglers got away with the money and it hasn't been found since."
"Let me guess, our two dead cops decided to slip some of the spoils for themselves and Lynch didn't agree with them," Gwen guessed.
"And so they executed him," Kurt concluded. "I went back for that body and found a 9mm bullet lodged in his back, he must have put up a fight. Poor guy held on right until they drowned him in that park."
"So where's the third crooked cop and who is he?"
"He's the ring leader of what used to be a quartet of professionals: Lieutenant William Price, retired and living here in Toronto." Kurt said. "I'm keeping an eye on him with some sprites I managed to bribe; they'll try to keep him from leaving his house for a bit."
"They can do that?"
"They have their ways."
Xxx
As Kurt informed Gwen of the dead cop's origins, Samantha Johnson, the medium of the deceased Ronald Lynch stood outside of William Price's house. Inside she could see William scrambling around as he packed his things.
"Honey, what are you doing?" His wife asked.
"Please, don't ask any questions. Just pack what you can in five minutes and get in the car." William said opened up a cabinet and pulled out his old gun.
That was when the lights went out.
"Francine, come here." William said, moving his wife into the bedroom.
"It's just a power outa-"
"Don't come out until I come back." William said as he closed the door and locked it with his key.
He quickly loaded his gun and slowly walked downstairs.
Xxx
Kurt looked up when the digital map on his TV picked up spirit activity.
"I think you'd better get down there, Gwen. We got something right outside Price's house." Kurt spoke into his cell phone.
"On it." Gwen got up from her chair.
Xxx
William pointed his gun at anyplace that might be hiding a potential attacker. With the lights out it was hard to see just who could be attacking him in the dark. Walking out into the living room he looked around cautiously, ready for almost anything.
Key word being almost ready.
His gun was flung out his hand and out the window. He felt a punch to his face by something that was not there. He yelled as he felt his nose was broken. He looked up and saw a little girl standing in the room with glowing eyes as spectre manifested behind her. It shifted itself to resemble...
"You..." William stared in shock.
Xxx
Gwen appeared in front of the house through a portal made by her Omni-Glove ran up to the door but it slammed shut in front of her.
"The spirit wishes to complete its final task." Andromeda said.
"By killing the last dirty cop. Sorry, but I thought we keep spirits from killing." Gwen said.
"This one might not end in death."
"Just for once I wish you weren't so cryptic around these times." Gwen groaned.
Xxx
"You killed them...You're the one who did..." William looked at the ghost behind the girl. "We offered you a chance and you tried to turn us in. You gave us no choice."
Neither the girl nor the ghost responded to what he said. They simply stared at him, their faces expressionless.
"You gave us no choice! You just wouldn't give up!" William shouted before something slammed into his gut and sent him into the wall.
He was then flung across the room and into the wall again and again.
Xxx
Gwen heard William's cries and quickly concentrated on a spell to get through the door. Drawing a symbol in the air with her Omni-Glove she whispered. "Compress and focus!"
She fired the air blast which slammed into the door and knocked it down. She pulled out her sword as she ran into the living room and watched what happened. The ghost of Robert Lynch hovered above Samantha Johnson as William was left bleeding on the floor. The ghost glowed brightly, its aura highlighting the entire room.
"All...right...all right!" William cried, unable to take the pain. "You want to make me confess! I'll tell them what we did! I'll tell them everything! Just please..." He was reduced to a whimpering old man as the spirit hung over him.
The ghost did not respond. It simply glowed so bright that Gwen was unable to look and covered her eyes. When it was over the ghost was gone and Samantha was on the floor. In her hand was a locket that fell out onto the floor.
Gwen was over at her side in an instant and looked at the locket. She picked it up and opened it, seeing the picture of Robert Lynch and a woman Gwen assumed to be his wife.
"Show me the end." Gwen whispered.
Lynch groaned as he woke up again, pain shooting up from where Malloy had shot him in the back-literally as he had tried to dial for backup. His hands were tied in front of him and somebody was tying chains around his feet.
"Sorry Bobby, but we're not going to jail," He heard Kutcher, his voice shaking as Lynch slowly realized what was going on as Malloy and Price carried him towards the lake. He struggled feebly, groaning in pain. He saw the heavy weight that Kutcher was dragging with both hands, barely able to hold it up.
"Here..." They stood at the end of a dock used for couples to go out on canoes or paddle boats. Kutcher heaved his arms out and swung the weight out into the water after Lynch was set on the dock. He heard the rattle of the chain as it slipped off the dock, and suddenly his legs were tugged forwards, sending him into the lake as well.
He tried to hold his breath, struggling to get free. But eventually he had to open his mouth and breathed in a lungful of water...
Darkness.
Then the image shifted to a locket left in the park. It had fallen out of Lynch's pocket while he was dragged into the lake and a girl found it. She picked it up and looked at it. Opening it she saw a man with a woman who most likely was his wife. She felt dizzy and then...
Nothing.
Gwen opened her eyes when the images faded.
"The locket allowed his spirit to connect with the girl." Andromeda whispered as Gwen picked up Samantha.
Glancing over at the whimpering William Price she could send him a small glare of disgust for what he had done.
"You better tell the truth or he will come back and next time...There won't be any mercy." Gwen said as she walked out the door.
Xxx
"Breaking news today as former police officer William Price confessed to murdering missing officer Robert Lynch twelve years ago during an investigation against smugglers. The other two involved in the murder had been killed days earlier before Price's confession which police now believe that Price was behind to keep them from confessing. When asked why he confessed now he said that he could feel the eyes watching him. Price has been committed to a hospital for the mentally ill where it is most likely he will spend a long time in for his crimes."
Gwen switched off her TV and looked at her necklace. "You knew that Lynch was going to scare Price into confessing didn't you?"
"That is the difference between what Lynch was and an Onyro. It goes after the guilty and the perpetrators are left to live in fear, confessing their sins lest they be dealt by the spirit more harshly. His two collaborators are now dead and he will live in fear of continued retribution for the rest of his life."
"And I imagine the afterlife will not be so kind to him either." Gwen guessed.
"Now that Price has confessed Lynch no longer has a reason to be here, his spirit will fade and pass into the next life."
"So, Samantha has no recollection of what happened at all." Gwen had made the sure locket had been found by Lynch's family when his body was recovered.
"She most likely would not have remembered anything before it was over anyway. Lynch possessed her to allow himself a way to reach out into this world and track down the ones who killed him. She would never recall being on or near the scene of each death. She will have a normal life now."
"Good. I'd hate to actually hurt a little kid." Gwen sighed in relief.
"Pray you never have to."